有聲英文閱讀-金錢及金錢的功用是什么？

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What Is Money and What Are Its Functions?

Money is something you've been familiar with throughout your life. In fact, you may already consider yourself an expert on the subject. You regularly use money to measure the value of things you own. You also have some of it in your pocket and in bank accounts. It might surprise you to learn that there's a great deal of disagreement among economists about what money is and how to measure it. Money serves a number of functions, and any definition of money must consider all of its functions.

The four major functions of money are as a medium of exchange, a standard of value, a standard of deferred payment, and a store of value.

A Medium of Exchange. As a generally accepted medium of exchange, money rules out the need for barter, the direct exchange of one item for another. Barter is a very inconvenient means of trading because it requires the double coincidence of wants. A seller with a good or service to offer must search for a buyer who has exactly what the seller desires. For example, if a baker wants meat, he must search for a person who sells meat and wants bread under a barter system.

Because money is generally accepted as payment for may purchase, a baker who sells bread for money can use the money to buy meat or anything else he wants.
A Standard of Value. Money provides a unit of account that serves as a standard to measure value. The value of an item is a measure of what a person will sacrifice to obtain it. How much is a two-week vacation in Hawaii worth to you? If you're like most people, you'll probably respond to such a question by valuing the vacation in dollars - way $2,000 - rather than in terms of other things (like your car).

Whether or not you're conscious of it, you're constantly valuing items in dollars. As a standard of value, money allows the addition of values of many different items as automobiles, repairs, and all other goods and services. The concept of GNP is useless without a standard of value such as the dollar.

A standard of Deferred Payment. Many contracts involve promises to pay sums of money in the future. The unit of account for deferred payment of debts is also money. If you borrow money to buy a car, the loan contract specifies how much you must pay back every month and the number of months required to satisfy your obligation. However, money serves its function as a standard of deferred payment only if its purchasing power remains fairly constant over time. If the price level rises, the future purchasing power of money over time will go down. Similarly, a decrease in the price level will increase the future purchasing power of money.

A Store of Value. Money can also serve as a store of value that can be quickly converted to good and services. Money as the actual medium of exchange is completely liquid, meaning it can immediately be converted to goods and services without any inconvenience or cost. Other assets that serve as stores of value must first be sold to be converted into a generally accepted medium of exchange. There are often costs and inconvenience associated with liquidating other assets. Holding money as a store of value thus can reduce the transaction costs involved in everyday business.

金錢及金錢的功用是什么？

錢是人一生中所非常熟悉的東西。實(shí)際上，很可能你已經(jīng)認(rèn)為自己就是這方面的專家了。你總是用錢來(lái)衡量你所擁有的一切東西的價(jià)值。你的口袋里和銀行往來(lái)帳戶上也總是有一定數(shù)量的錢?？墒墙?jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們對(duì)于金錢是什么，對(duì)于怎樣來(lái)衡量金錢，卻有許許多多不同的意見(jiàn)，你若知道了這一情況或許會(huì)大吃一驚。

錢的功能和作用有很多，給金錢所下的任何定義必須能把金錢的一切功用都包括進(jìn)去。

錢的四種主要的功能和作用就是：交易媒介、價(jià)值標(biāo)準(zhǔn)、賒賬標(biāo)準(zhǔn)、價(jià)值儲(chǔ)備。

交易媒介。因?yàn)橐话闳硕及呀疱X當(dāng)然交易媒介，這就不必再進(jìn)行物物交換了，即不必再以一種商品去交換另一種商品了。物物交換是一種很不方便的交易方式，因?yàn)橘I賣雙方的需要都能吻合才行。想出售商品或勞務(wù)的賣主必須搜找這樣一個(gè)買家，在這個(gè)買家手里正好有賣主想要得到的東西。例如，用物物交換的交易方式，如果一個(gè)賣面包的想要得到肉，那他就必須找一個(gè)想得到面包的賣肉的人才能交易。因?yàn)殄X是一般人都能接受的一種購(gòu)買任何商品的支付手段，所以一個(gè)賣面包的，賣了面包得到了錢，就可以用錢去買肉或者去買他所想買的任何別的東西。

價(jià)值標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。錢是一種計(jì)算單位，用這個(gè)計(jì)算單位可作為衡量?jī)r(jià)值的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。一件商品的價(jià)值要由一個(gè)人為得到該商品應(yīng)付多少錢來(lái)衡量。一個(gè)人到美國(guó)夏威夷州去度假兩周該花多少錢？如果你像大多數(shù)人一樣，也許你若回答度這一次假的價(jià)值的問(wèn)題，你會(huì)用錢數(shù)來(lái)回答，比如你回答說(shuō)$2000，而不會(huì)用其他東西的（例如汽車）的數(shù)字來(lái)回答。不管你意識(shí)到?jīng)]有，反正你總是用美元來(lái)衡量某些開(kāi)支項(xiàng)目的價(jià)值。金錢，作為價(jià)值標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，能把許多不同的開(kāi)支項(xiàng)目，比如各種汽車、大修理費(fèi)和所買的其他所有的商品和勞務(wù)費(fèi)用，加到一起，總共花了多少錢。如果沒(méi)有像美元之類的價(jià)值標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，那么國(guó)民生產(chǎn)總值這類概念就毫無(wú)用處。

賒賬標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。許多合同里都有保證將來(lái)分幾次付款的諾言。分期付款債務(wù)的計(jì)算機(jī)單位也是錢。如果你貸款去買一輛汽車，那么借貸合同上就規(guī)定了你每月要償還多少錢，規(guī)定了你償清債務(wù)所需的月份數(shù)字?？墒牵挥性诮疱X的購(gòu)買力在一段時(shí)間內(nèi)保持相對(duì)穩(wěn)定的條件下，金錢才能起到賒賬延期支付標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的作用。如果物價(jià)水平在上漲，那么在將來(lái)的一段時(shí)期內(nèi)金錢的購(gòu)買力就會(huì)下降。同樣道理，如果物價(jià)水平在下降，那么金錢的購(gòu)買力就會(huì)上漲。

價(jià)值儲(chǔ)存。金錢也能起到儲(chǔ)存價(jià)值的作用，所儲(chǔ)存的價(jià)值可以迅速轉(zhuǎn)化成商品或者勞務(wù)。金錢既然是實(shí)際上的交易媒介，它是完全可以流通的。也就是說(shuō)金錢可以立即轉(zhuǎn)換成任何商品或任何勞務(wù)而不會(huì)有任何不便之處，不須付出任何代價(jià)?？墒瞧渌Y產(chǎn)若作為價(jià)值儲(chǔ)存起來(lái)，要想轉(zhuǎn)換就必須首先把它賣掉，這才能使之轉(zhuǎn)換成一般人都能接受的交易媒介，而在變賣其他資產(chǎn)時(shí)，還經(jīng)常要支出一些附加費(fèi)用，這很不方便。可是有了具有儲(chǔ)存價(jià)值的金錢，就可以免去了日常買賣中的交易費(fèi)用。